Jeannace Freeman: “A lesbian woman shouldn’t take up with a
woman who’s got children – it just isn’t any good.” [BB, Sep. 14, 61]
Jeannace Freeman dominated Gertrude Nunez Jackson, and used
to fly into a rage if rage
wanted to make love to her and the came in. On the morning
of 10th May [1961], they had driven to the cliff above Crooked River
Cayon. Jeannace told Mrs. Jackson to take a walk. Then she strangled the boy
Larry, [beat him with a tire iron], undressed him, and mutilated his genitals –
possibly to make it look like sexual assault. Mrs. Jackson came back, and
helped Jeannace to undress her four-year-old daughter. They then mutilated her
genitals, and tossed her, still alive, off the cliff. The prosecutor asked Mrs.
Nunez Jackson, “Didn’t you feel anything?” “No, I didn’t feel anything.” After
both children had been thrown over, Mrs. Jackson pointed to some blood on
Jeannace’s hand; Jeannace said “Yum yum,” and licked it off. Then they hugged
and kissed in the car. [excerpted, with minor corrections, from: Colin Wilson,
A Casebook of Murder, Cowles Book Co., N. Y., 1969]
On May 12, 1961 the nude and mutilated bodies of Lawrence
Gene “Larry” Jackson, aged 6, and Martha May Jackson, aged 4, were spotted on
the floor of the Crooked River Gorge, about 360 feet below. Their identity
remained unknown until the 15th when Jeannace Freeman’s sister, Mrs. Phyllis
Round, identified the bodies.
A hunt for the Freeman (19) and Jackson (33) was initiated
and on the following day they were tracked down and were arrested in Oakland,
California along with Letha June Little, whom Freeman claimed was a hitchhiker
they had picked up, but was later identified by Freeman as her “wife.”
They were extradited to Madras, Oregon and on May 19 were
indicted in Jackson County Court and charged with two counts of first degree
murder. Jackson confessed to her part in the murders by Freeman maintained her
innocence, claiming she took no part in the assults, killing or disposal of the
bodies.
On August 31, 1961 the eve of the trial Jackson turned
state’s evidence in order to avoid facing a death sentence. She testified on
September 13 that it was she who killed the girl and Freeman who had killed the
boy. The girl was still alive when she was thrown down the ravine. The
following day Freeman testified, offering a radically different relation of
events which would render her inculpable. The trial closed the next day; the
jury not believing Freeman, found her guilty of first degree murder. Freeman’s
sentencing hearing took place four days later, on September 19, and she was
given a death sentence, to be
effectuated in the Oregon gas chamber.
There were many appeals and stays of execution. In November
1964 Oregon banned the death penalty. Freeman was released from prison in 1985,
but was returned to server her life sentence following a parole violation. She
died in 2003.
[Robert St. Estephe]
FULL TEXT: Editors: The following story about Jeannace
Freeman is by a reporter who has been close to the series of events since the
children were murdered. It was prepared with the final thought of giving some
detailed background of the first woman scheduled to die in Oregon’s gas
chamber. It contains details some may consider objectionable; but the detail is
there for better understanding of the subject, not for sensational effect. The
story was written expressly for the Associated Press, by Ann Sullivan,
Oregonian staff writer.
By ANN SULLIVAN, For The Associated Press
The first woman to be executed In Oregon penal history
scheduled to did in the state penitentiary gas chamber the first hour of Dec.
6.
The execution would end a strange, young troubled life. The
condemned woman is Jeannace June Freeman, 21 last June 22.
Jeannace has appealed for clemency to Gov. Mark O. Hatfield.
There is no indication he will consider this case any
differently from the others on which he has decided to reverse the procedure of
Oregon law’s most drastic penalty. The Oregon Supreme Court twice turned down
an appeal.
~ Was Cocky Prisoner.
But a stay of execution has been requested pending an appeal
to the U. S. Supreme Court.
Jeannace Freeman, a year and a half ago, was a cocky,
cigar-smoking prisoner. She looked like a tom-boy teenager. She always had
preferred baseball to pretty clothes.
Today the starch appears all gone from her shoulders, and
she sits, dully, in a special cell in the women’s quarters at the prison.
Prison attendants say when she is alone she cries.
A year and a half ago was talkative and brash. She denied
any complicity in the deaths of two small children, named Jackson, Larry, 6,
and Martha, 4. Even them, she though no one was around she wept.
In all the two week trial and the months of waiting for the
appeal, Jeannace has shown no emotion in public.
~ Once Was Shaken
Only once during the trial a year ago September did she
appear really shaken. She was leaving the courtroom. Her mother stood in the
front row crying.
“Mama, don’t! Mama, don’t!” said Jeannace, her face
anguished, and tried to comfort her.
Other than the notoriety of being the first woman sentenced
to execution in Oregon, Jeannace has achieved little for society to note.
This unhappy, almost scrawny young woman, whp never had much
of a home and never succeeded at anything important, such as school, found one
comfort in life of Lesbianism, female homosexuality.
Somewhere along the line, whether for physical, emotional or
simply chance reasons – or all of them – Jeannace Freeman learned to prefer the
company of woman.
~ Dominant Role
Usually, although both are of the same sex, one assumes the
role of domination.
Jeannace was the dominant one. She was boss.
Not much is known of her early life. But some facts have
been uncovered by police investigation and trial testimony.
The identity of her father is not known. Her mother was
married several times. Jeannace lived in Central Oregon which she liked. She
has a number of half-sister and some step-brothers.
When she was 4 years old, she was raped by a man who later
served time in the penitentiary for the offense.
She liked fishing, sports and riding, became quite strong and
wiry for her small size. She liked to play ball with boys.
She was troubled in school and had a behavior problem. She
was sent to Hillcreast School for Girls when she was about 13. It was there she
found her first Lesbian companion.
~ Something Like Child
Before the dearths of the Jackson children, Jeannace favored
short mannish haircuts, men’s jeans, moccasins, men’s cowboy shirts. She walked
with a swagger, something like a child imitating a cowboy.
She had a numerous home-administered tattooes [sic] on various
parts of her body, according to police records. The words of them were as
follows: above the left breast, “Spinner”; right breast, “Julia”; right
forearm, “Lucky”; back of left shoulder, “Tiger”; left forearm, “Love”; inner
side of left ankle, “Fruit,” and one letter each on the fingers of her left
hand, “Hate.”
Her companion in crime was the children’s mother, Mrs.
Gertrude May Nunez Jackson, a shirt presser in a Eugene laundry. She was 33
years old. A smallish woman who favored the wearing dresses, and never
trousers. She had married once a Mexican railroad worker and had a child, a
son, now about 10 or 11 years old. Later she took up with a Negro named Dempsey
Jackson. Two children, a boy, Larry, and a girl, Martha, were born of the
common law marriage.
~ Jackson Was Gone
But when Jeannace met her, Jackson was gone, and Mrs.
Jackson was having baby-sitting troubles.
Jeannace worked for her. And in their association, Mrs.
Jackson acquiesced to the homosexual overtures of Jeannace.
Laundry wages were low in Eugene, forever, and it was
decided they would go to Oakland, Calif., where Mrs. Jackson had worked before.
Jeannace, Mrs. Jackson and the children drove to Oakland and lived in rooms and
small apartment.
Jeannace found the children in the way. She kept them
outside a lot.
The two women began talking of what to do with the children,
and Jeannace, according to the mother’s later trial testimony, began talking of
“doing away with them.” The mother, who told of the complete domination of the
younger woman over her, didn’t seem to care much.
Her testimony: “Whatever she said, that was it.”
~ Discussion Held
There was discussion of “foster” home in Portland, of an
Indian family in Oregon, hiding them in a cave and killing them.
And that’s what was finally done. Driving straight through,
with only a stop at a sister of Jeannce in Klamath Falls, the women came to the
Peter Skene Ogden State Park between Bend and Madras.
There the Crooked River has cut a deep slash in the rock of
the sometimes bleak central Oregon plateau.
~ Early In Morning
The arrival was just about dawn on the chill morning of May
11, 1961. According to Mrs. Jackson’s testimony against Jeannace at the trial,
Jeannace told her to “get lost.”
Mrs. Jackson said she walked over by the railroad bridge
trestle, came back later. She said she found the beaten body of Larry on the
front seat and Jeannace stripped off his clothes. She said Jeannace tossed him
into the gorge, and she herself tossed the little girl after they both took off
the clothing.
The mother, who had said she wanted to finally tell the
truth, pleaded guilty to the murder of the girl. But she insisted she did not
at any time hit her. Circuit Judge Robert H. Foley decided the mother’s
penalty, life imprisonment.
Both children were beaten on the head by a tire iron. They
also bore fingermarks of choking on their throats. The bodies of both were
mutilated also, probably with a tire iron, and authorities feel this was done
to lead police astray and make them think the children may have been raped by a
man. The girl was still alive when she was thrown over.
~ Each Charged
The woman were charged with the murder of one child each.
Mrs. Jackson pleaded guilty and turned state’s evidence.
Jeannace, whose meek voice in court was strange contrast to
the taped recording of her cocky answers to police earlier, told a series of
differing stories of the crime.She accused the mother of the deaths.
Asked why she did not try to stop it, or at least tell
police afterwards, Jeannace just says she was “scared.”
But the two women that same day ate breakfast at Jeannace’s
stepfather’s home at nearby Culver, cleaned out the car and went fishing in the
same river which cut the canyon where the children lay.
Jeannace and Mrs. Jackson drove over the McKenzie pass to
Cottage Grove, then went on to Oakland and sold the car. They threw a box of
the children’s clothing out along the highway at a remote forested spot. It was
later found.
[Ann Sullivan, “Execution of Convicted Slayer Miss Freeman
Would End Strange and Troubled Young Life,” The Oregon Statesman (Salem, Or.),
Nov. 18, 1962, p. 4]
***
Note: Some news reports use the spelling “Jeannance.”
“Gertrude May Nunez” is often used without “Jackson.”
***
Principal Parties:
Jeannace June Freeman – address listed in Culver, Oregon;
Birth: Jun. 22, 1941, Cottage Grove Lane County Oregon; Death: Dec.
19, 2003, Wilsonville, Clackamas County, Oregon.
Gertrude May Nunez Jackson – address listed in Oakland, Ca.
Lawrence Gene “Larry” Jackson – aged 6; murdered May 10,
1961, Crooked River Canyon, near Madras, Oregon.
Martha May Jackson – aged 4; murdered May 10, 1961, Crooked
River Canyon, near Madras, Oregon.
***
CHRONOLOGY:
May 10, 1961 – murders: Lawrence Gene “Larry” Jackson, 6;
Martha May Jackson, 4.
May 12, 1961 – The nude, broken bodies of the children were
spotted on the floor of the Crooked River Gorge, about 360 feet below.
May 15, 1961 – Mrs. Phyllis Round, Freeman’s sister,
identified the bodies.
May 16, 1961 – Freeman and
Jackson arrested in Oakland, Ca. A woman they claimed had picked up
hitchhiking, Letha June Little, was arrested along with them, but released. She
was later described by Freeman as her “wife.”
May 17, 1961 – Jackson confesses 4 hours after arrest;
Freeman blamed Jackson for beatings, murders and disposal of the bodies.
May 18, 1961 – In Oakland, Ca., the pair waive extradition
hearing.
May 19, 1961 – both women indicted; two charges of
first-degree murder; Jefferson County Court, Madras, Oregon.
Aug. 31, 1961 – just
prior to the trial, Jackson turned state’s evidence. Jackson testified that
she, herself, then took her daughter from the car, pulled the girl’s blouse
off, then tossed her into the canyon. She said the girl was alive at the time
she was thrown. By testifying against Freeman, Jackson received a life sentence
for killing her daughter. But she was released after seven years.
Sep. 5, 1961 – trial begins, jury selection; Jefferson
County Court, Madras, Oregon.
Sep. 7, 1961 – opening arguments begin.
Sept. 13, 1961 – Jackson testifies.
Sept. 14, 1961 – Freeman testifies; story diametrically opposed
to Jackson’s.
Sep. 15, 1961 – Freeman found guilty;
Sep. 19, 1961 – Freeman given death sentence; gas chamber.
Dec. 6, 1962 – scheduled date of execution; stayed.
Jan. 5, 1963 – commutation denied by Gov. Hatfield;
scheduled for execution in gas chamber Jan. 29.
Feb. 11, 1964 – fifth stay of execution.
Mar. 6, 1964 – new execution date.
Nov. 5(?), 1964 – Oregon abolishes the death penalty.
Nov. 7(?) – Freeman death sentence commuted.
1968 – Gertrude May Nunez Jackson released.
1985 – Jeannace Freeman released; changed her name to Wilma
Lin Rhule; Aug. 20, 1985 – “Starting Over” interview, published in Salem
Statesman.
Year? – Freeman violates parole, returns to prison.
Dec. 19, 2003 – Freeman dies in prison (?); Wilsonville,
Clackamas County, Oregon.
***
SOURCES:
[“Oakland, Calif., Police Arrest Mother of Two Slain
Children,” Eugene Register-Guard (Or.), May 17, 1961, p. 1]
[“Mother Confesses to Part in Slaying of Children,” Medford
Mail Tribune (Or.), May 17, 1961, p. 1]
[“Court Hearing Friday For Oregon Women,” Eugene
Register-Guard (Or.), May 18, 1961, p. 1]
[“Two Waive Court Hearing In Oakland,” Sugene Record-Guard
(Or.), May 19, 1961, p. 1]
[“Extradited,” Albany Democrat-Herald (Or.), May 20, 1961,
p. 1]
[“Murder suspects request preliminary hearing today,” The
Bend Bulletin (Or.), May 22, 1961, p. 1]
[Robert W. Chandler, “Mother Admits Murder Of Daughter,” The
Bend Bulletin (Or.), Aug. 31, 1961, p. 1]
[“Murder Trial Under Way,” Eugene Register Guard (Or.), Sep.
5, 1961, p. 1]
[“Opening Arguments Begin; Freeman jurors taken to gorge
area where children met death,” The Bend Bulletin (Or.), Sep. 7, 1961, p. 1]
[“Mother of Slain
Pair Disagrees With Statements of Companion,” Eugene Register-Guard (Or.), Sep.
13, 1961, p. 5A]
[Raymond A. Chandler, “Mother testifies; Gaping holes torn
in Freeman stories,” The Bend Bulletin (Or.), Sep. 14, 1961, p. 1]
[Raymond A. Chandler, “Freeman woman gives her version of
events at Gorge,” The Bend Bulletin (Or.), Sep. 14, 1961, p. 1]
[Robert W. Chandler, “Verdict has no provision for
leniency,” The Bend Bulletin (Or.), Sep. 16, 1961, p. 1]
[“Madras Jury Says Woman Murdered Lad,” Eugene
Register-Guard (Or.), Sep. 16, 1961, P. 1]
[“Judge orders gas chamber for Freeman,” The Bend Bulletin
(Or.), Sep. 19, 1961, p. 1]
[Ann Sullivan, “Execution of Convicted Slayer Miss Freeman
Would End Strange and Troubled Young Life,” The Oregon Statesman (Salem, Or.),
Nov. 18, 1962, p. 4
[“Jeannace Freeman Returns to Prison; Execution Date Set,”
Medford Mail Tribune (Or.), Dec. 2, 1962, p.
2A]
[Colin Wilson, A Casebook of Murder, Cowles Book Co., N. Y., 1969]
[Ann Sullivan, “Execution of Convicted Slayer Miss Freeman
Would End Strange and
Troubled Young Life,” The Oregon Statesman (Salem, Or.),
Nov. 18, 1962, p. 4]
